Bowling pin detector

ABSTRACT

An apparatus is disclosed for noting the number of pins that are standing on a bowling alley and thereby indicating how many pins have been knocked down, the apparatus including alternate lighting of adjacent zones including the pins and an array of light sensitive means to note whether respective pins are standing or are down. To prevent false indications, any indication of a standing pin in an unlighted zone may be blocked.

United States Patent Hutto, Jr. et ai. [45] Mar. 21, 1972 BOWLING PINDETECTOR [56] References Cited [72] Inventors: Edgar Hutto, Jr., CherryHill; James P. UNITED STATES PATENTS Mammy 3,140,872 7/1964 Bolger ..27354 [73] Assignee: RCA Corporation 3,307,848 3/1967 Brackett .250/222 X3,309,086 3/1967 Viets ..250/222 X [22] Filed: Feb. 11,1971

Primary Examiner-James W. Lawrence [2H Appl' 111,606 AssistantExaminer-D. C. Nelms Related U.S. Application Data y-" Norton [63]Continuation of Ser. No. 809,663, Mar. 24, 1969, 5 ABSTRACT abandoned.

An apparatus is disclosed for noting the number of pins that 52 U.S.Cl...250/222 R, 250 227, 273 54 c, are Standing on a bowling alley and byindicating how 273/54 E many pins have been knocked down, the apparatusincluding 511 im. Cl. ..G06m 11/00 alternate lighting adjacent indudingPins and [58] Field of Search ..250 220 209 222 227- array lightSensitive means to t ther respective pins 273/46, 54 C, 54 E; 350/96 B;l78/7.2

are standing or are down. To prevent false indications, any indicationof a standing pin in an unlighted zone may be PAIENTEDMARN 19723,651,328

SHEET 1 [IF 3 v HVVE/V E06 u'r'ro. Jame MAHOMEY TORUKY- PAIENTEUMARHI972 SHEET 3 BF 3 I HVVE/VTOR Evbnn. Hurmlm James P.MAHOM EY M Wf Q' dORNEY BOWLING PIN DETECTOR This is a continuation of Ser. No. 809,663filed Mar. 24, 1969, now abandoned.

This invention relates to apparatus for indicating which pinsarestanding after a ball has been rolled in the game of bowling.

In automatic scoring of bowling games, it is necessary to know how manypins are standing after the first ball is rolled and how many pins arestanding after the second ball is rolled, whereby the number of pinsknocked down by the several balls may be determined. Also, it isconvenient to indicate which pins are still standing after a ball isrolled as by a display which is visible to the bowler.

It is an object of this invention to provide an improved indicator whichwill indicate how many pins have been knocked down after a ball has beenrolled in the game of bowling.

In accordance with this invention, a plurality of lighting means areprovided which are aimed to illuminate the tips of pins that may bestanding on a bowling lane, each lighting element lighting up a zonecontaining at least one pin and less than all the pins, and eachlighting element illuminating, as nearly as is practical, only one zone.The lighting elements are alternately energized and deenergized aftereach ball is rolled whereby all the zones are illuminated, but no twoadjacent zonesare illuminated simultaneously. An array of photosensitiveelements are provided having as many photosensitive elements as themaximum number of pins standing at the beginning of the game. The lightreflected from the tops of the standing pins is applied either directlyor indirectly, as by fiber optics bundles, on respective light sensitiveelements. The condition of conductivity of a light sensitive element isdetermined by the presence or absence of reflection from the head of astanding pin, whereby an indication is produced to indicate whether aparticular pin or pins are still standing or are down. To prevent falseindication any signal from a photosensitive element that receives lightfrom an unlighted zone is blocked. The indications that pins arestanding may be counted by any known counting apparatus which mayinclude for example a data storage register and an inversely countingcounter. The indications may also be applied to a display to indicatethe corresponding pins which are still standing.

The invention will be better understood upon reading the followingdescription in connection with the accompanying drawing in which FIG. Iis a diagrammatic plan view of a portion of a bowling alley showing thebowling pins in position before a ball is rolled, and showing the planposition of the light sources or illuminator and also showing the planposition of the array of light sensitive elements, in accordance withthis invention,

FIG. 2 is a diagrammatic side elevational view of a portion of thebowling alley of FIG. 1 showing the elevational position of theilluminator and the light sensitive array,

FIG. 3 is a broken away view of a viewer and diagrammatic view ofcircuitry that can be used with the disclosed bowling pin detector, and

FIG. 4 is a sectional view of the viewer of FIG. 3 on line 4 4 thereof.

Turning first to FIG. 1, a portion of a bowling alley is disclosed. Thepins, numbered 1 to 10 in the conventional manner, are positioned on apin receiving portion 12 of the alley between the two gutters 14 and 16.A pit 18 for receiving the fallen pins and the rolled balls is providedbehind the pin receiving portion 12, and a cushion 20 is provided tocushion the blows by the rolled balls and by the fallen pins. A switch22 is closed momentarily by the cushion 20 when it is hit by a ball orby pins after each ball is rolled. A pin setter 24, not indicated inFIG. 1, is indicated in FIG. 2 as being above the pins and as extendingback over the pit l8 and in front of the cushion 20. An illuminator 26is provided to illuminate the pins in alternate zones as will beexplained, and a viewer 28 is provided to view the tops of the pins andto note which pins are standing. The illuminator 26 is positioned to'the side of and to the front of the pins and viewer 28 is positioned tothe Mill other side of and to the front of the pins but nearer the pinsthan the illuminator 26. The viewer and the illuminator are tipped withrespect to the alley for a purpose to be disclosed and they aresupported in their fixed positions by suitable means not shown.

As shown in FIG. 3, the illuminator 26 includes four lamps 30,32, 34 and36 and respective lenses 38, 40, 42 and 44. One terminal of each of thelamps 30, 32, 34 and 36 is connected in common to a terminal of a source46 of alternating current. The remaining terminals of the lamps 30 and34 are connected together and to one tenninal of a delay and switchmeans 48. The other terminal of the lamps 32 and 36 are connectedtogether and to another terminal of the delay and switch means 48, and athird terminal of the delay and switch means 48 is connected to theother terminal of the source 46. While a semiconductor delay and switchdivide 48 may be used, a rotary switch having several contacts is usablein this connection. When the cushion 20 (FIGS. 1 and 3) moves back uponbeing hit by a ball or bya pin, the switch 22 is closed momentarily.Closing the switch 22 causes the lights 30 and 34 to go on momentarily,the lights 32 and 36 being off, and causes the lights 32 and 36 to go onmomentarily, the lights 30 and 34 being off, after a delay. The purposeof the delay is to give the pins that are going to fall time to fall,before they are counted. However, the delay ends before the pin setter24 moves down far enough to obstruct the light going from lamps 30, 32,34, and 36 to the pins or the reflected light going from the pins to theviewer 28.

As will be seen in FIG. 1, the light 50 from the lamp 30 illuminates azone containing the pins 1, 3, 6 and 10, the light 52 from the lamp 32illuminates a zone containing the pins 2, 5 and 9, the light 54 from thelamp 34 illuminates a zone containing the pins 4 and 8 and the light 56from the lamp 36 illuminates a zone containing the pin 7. The four zonesdo not overlap or if they do overlap they overlap as little as isreasonably possible. As will be seen from FIG. 2, the several lightbeams 50, 52, 54 and 56 projected by the lamps 30, 32, 34 and 36illuminates the heads of the several pins and as little of the rest ofthe pins as is reasonably possible. As shown in FIG. 3, the lights 30,32, 34 and 36 are positioned progressively closer together, and thelight 34 is displaced laterally from the lights 30, 32 and 36 for thepurpose of aiming the lights to illuminate their respective zoneswithout substantial overlap.

The pin detector 28 is shown in greater detail in FIG. 3. A housing 60is provided having two coaxial cylindrical portions 62 and 64 joined byan annular portion 66. A lens 68 is positioned in the free end of theportion 62 and the lens 68 causes focusing of light reflected from theseveral pins 1 to 10 on the ends 70 (see FIG. 4) of fiber glass opticalbundles 72. The ends 70 are positioned in an array corresponding to thepositions of the pins and the ends are held in such a position by aholder 74. The ends 70 of the fiber glass bundles are spread out asillustrated in FIG. 4 to receive all the light reflected from respectivepins and focused by the lens 68. In FIG. 4 each fiber bundle end 70 hasa number l-l0 placed thereon to indicate that a certain bundle end 70receives light from the pin referred to by the corresponding number. Thefiber optic bundles 72 apply light to respective photosensitive cells 76which are held in position in the larger cylindrical portion 64 by meansof a holder 78. While there are 10 optical bundles and 10 photocells 76,less are shown in FIG. 3 for clarity of illustration. The wires leadingfrom the individual photocells 76 extend to one input of respectiveAND-circuits 86, 88, 90, 92, 94, 96, 98, 100, 102 and 104. The otherinput terminals of the AND-circuits 86, 90, 92, 96, 100 and 104 to whichinformation as to pins 1, 3, 4, 6, 8, and 10 is sent are connectedtogether and to an output of a monostable multivibrator 106. The otherinput terminals of the AND-circuits 83, 94, 98 and 102 to whichinformation as to pins 2, 5, 7 and 9 is sent are connected together andto the other output of the multivibrator 106. The outputs of the severalANDS 86-104 extend to a data storage device and inverse counter 80. Thestorage device and counter and the multivibrator 106, after each ball isrolled, have applied thereto a pulse due to the momentary closing of theswitch 22, a delay circuit 77 being included in the path of the pulsefrom the switch 22 to the counter 80. The multivibrator 106 has a highvoltage on one of its outputs and a low on the other, and each time apulse is applied to the multivibrator the voltages of the outputsinterchange momentarily and then return to their original voltages. Thecount stored in the device 80 is passed on to an electronic scorer 82.The second pulse applied to the storage and counter device 80 sets theinverse counter to zero if after the second ball the inverse counter isnot at zero. The scorer 82 indicates the bowling score after each frame.if desired, the AND-circuits 86-104 may be connected to a standing pinindicator 84 to indicate which pins are still standing;

While a fiber optic system has been disclosed, the images of the headsof the pins may be focused directly on respective photosensitive devicesif so desired.

A disclosed pin detector system operates as follows: A ball has beenrolled and certain pins have fallen. The switch 22 is closedmomentarily, which, after a short delay,causes the lights 30 and 34 togo on while the lights 32 and 36 are ofi; A pulse is applied to themultivibrator 106. However, due to a built-in delay, the multivibrator106 continues to apply gate opening potential to the AND-gates 86, 90,92, 96, 100 and 104 to which informations as to the position of the pins1, 3, 4, 6, 8 and 10, which are lit up by the lights 30 and 34 arrive.

The heads of the pins standing in the zone containing the pins 1, 3, 4,6, 8 and are illuminated. Since the heads of the pins in the other zonesare not illuminated no light is reflected therefrom and no falseindication will be given thereby. However, to make sure that noinformation as to the pins in the zones that are not illuminated getthrough to the data storage and inverse counter 80, a gate closingpotential is applied to the gates 88, 94, 98 and 102 to whichinformation concerning the pins 2, 5, 7 and 9 that are not in the litzones arrive, while the lights 30 and 34 are one. The images of theheads of the standing pins in the lit zones are focused by the lens 68on the ends 70 of the fiber optic bundles 72. The light is transferredby the fiber bundle 72 to respective photocells 76 and the resultingelectrical signals are applied to the storage and counter device 80 byway of the gates 86-104 (as explained above) and also to the standingpin indicator 84. Almost immediately thereafter, the lights 30 and 34 gooff and the lights 32 and 36 go on and the zone including the pins 2,5and 9 and also the zone including the pin 7 are illuminated. Also thestate of the multivibrator 106 changes blocking the gates 86, 90, 92,96, 100 and 104 and unblocking the gates 88, 94, 98 and 102. Thestanding pins standing in these two last mentioned zones causeindications which are applied to the storage and counter means 80 and tothe standing pin indication 84 without false indication from any lightthat would be reflected from the pins in the unilluminated zones if theywere illuminated. Also, the monostable multivibrator 106 returns to itsstable condition as soon as all the lights 30, 32, 34, and 36 are out,applying a gate blocking voltage to the AND-gates 88, 94, 98 and 102 andapplying a gate unblocking potential to the gates 86, 90, 92, 96, 100and 104, and the multivibrator 106 remains that way until time to notethe pins knocked down by the second ball. At this moment, the delaycircuit 77 passes on the pulse applied to it, when the switch 22 wasclosed, to cause the count provided by the counter to be transferred tothe scorer 82. in a similar manner the pins still standing will be notedby the photocells 76 after the second ball is rolled. The counter 80will pass on information as to which pins are standing only during theapplication of a pulse thereto by way of the delay circuit 77. 1

What is claimed:

1. A bowling pin detector for use in a bowling game for determiningwhich of each of a given number of pins are standing, each of said pinscorresponding individually to a discrete, separate pin location in apredetermined array; said detector comprising:

light means for illuminating the heads of each and every Standing P simaging means disposed with respect to said predetermined array forforming a separate discrete image of each illu- .minated standing pinhead and producing an image array composed of different predeterminedimage locations, each image location corresponding respectively to adifferent one of said pin locations,

an individual transducer means corresponding to each separate imagelocation responsive to the light reflected from the respectiveilluminated pin heads, and

respective light guide means disposed between each image location and arespective corresponding individual transducer means for concentratingthe light at each of said image locations and for transmitting saidconcentrated light to said individual transducer means.

2. The detector of claim 1, wherein said light guide means includes abundle of fiber optic tubes each tube corresponding to a different oneof said image locations.

3. The detector of claim 2 further including means for preventing lightadjacent to and without any of said image locations from beingconcentrated and transmitted by one of said tubes.

4. The detector of claim 3 wherein said illuminating means includes aplurality of lighting means positioned for illuminating the heads ofpins in adjacent zones, each zone including at least one pin, and

said light preventing means includes means to cause alternateenergization of said illuminating means for illuminating alternate zonesin succession.

5. The detector of claim 4 wherein there are at least three adjacentzones, each zone, when all pins are standing, containing at least onepin, a second of three zones being between a first and a third zone,said means to cause alternate energization illuminating the first andthird zones simultaneously and while the second zone is not illuminated.

1. A bowling pin detector for use in a bowling game for determiningwhich of each of a given number of pins are standing, each of said pinscorresponding individually to a discrete, separate pin location in apredetermined array; said detector comprising: light means forilluminating the heads of each and every standing pin, imaging meansdisposed with respect to said predetermined array for forming a separatediscrete image of each illuminated standing pin head and producing animage array composed of different predetermined image locations, eachimage location corresponding respectively to a different one of said pinlocations, an individual transducer means corresponding to each separateimage location responsive to the light reflected from the respectiveilluminated pin heads, and respective light guide means disposed betweeneach image location and a respective corresponding individual transducermeans for concentrating the light at each of said image locations andfor transmitting said concentrated light to said individual transducermeans.
 2. The detector of claim 1, wherein said light guide meansincludes a bundle of fiber optic tubes each tube corresponding to adifferent one of said image locations.
 3. The detector of claim 2further including means for preventing light adjacent to and without anyof said image locations from being concentrated and transmitted by oneof said tubes.
 4. The detector of claim 3 wherein said illuminatingmeans includes a plurality of lighting means positioned for illuminatingthe heads of pins in adjacent zones, each zone including at least onepin, and said light preventing means includes means to cause alternateenergization of said illuminating means for illuminating alternate zonesin succession.
 5. The detector of claim 4 wherein there are at leastthree adjacent zones, each zone, when all pins are standing, containingat least one pin, a second of three zones being between a first and athird zone, said means to cause alternate energization illuminating thefirst and third zones simultaneously and while the second zone is notilluminated.